3.5/5 ★ – BlueSorcerer's review of Mega Man Zero 4.

[SPOILER WARNING ADVISED!] This is definitely the most divisive entry in the Zero series. Which side of the spectrum do I lean towards? Well you'll find out soon enough. Presentation-wise, Zero 4 looks really good. Easily has the best appearance in the entire series. Secondly, the story is quite good which is expected of a Zero game. But I just can't help but feel that some of the characters and elements introduced in it either felt introduced too late or really felt they did not need to be introduced whatsoever. The leader of the Humans Settlement, Neige, I have no idea what to say about. Her character just doesn't feel like it matters all that much to the story. The only time it does is when Zero saves her from being kidnapped and she actually shares her past hardships in living in Neo Arcadia. I don't know. Maybe I'm missing something and bashing Neige too hard, but I really don't have much to say about her. Maybe if she was introduced earlier in the series and had some development, I might show a little more interest in her character. Now Craft's character I like. Sure his presence isn't too much better than Neige, but he at least has character development in some form that matters to the story. He not only was once Neige's friend but a friend to all humans. Now he is under Dr. Weil's command and subjecting the humans' lives to danger. This is an interesting contrast and I like how later on in the game, Craft has a change of mind and straight up sneaks under Dr. Weil's nose to take control of the Ragnarok cannon. And he literally blows up Neo Arcadia with it after Zero and the Resistance save all the humans and reploids there that they can. Man that is just an awesome turn of events! His boss fight absolutely sucks, but that's still awesome! Where Zero 3 did a great job with establishing weight, Zero 4 does a great job with establishing trust. Many humans from Neo Arcadia are bitter to the Resistance and especially Zero because they lost Copy X, their leader, and it took a large toll on their civilization. The humans seeing Zero not only as the one responsible for killing Copy X but trying to create peace for humans and reploids alike really makes it hard for them to trust—let alone judge—Zero and the Resistance's actions. This is something that Zero 4 really has going for its story and the writers detail it super well. We have gone quite a long way to get to this point. Back in Zero 1, Zero is awakened with no memory of himself, no sound judgement, yet he saves Ciel because she asked him solely for help. And reploids like Zero were designed for war, designed to do whatever would ensure harmony between them and humanity. Zero sees that Ciel needs help, sees that the X-looking reploids are cornering her, and immediately jumps in to aid her even with just his buster. Because it's what he has to do, whether it's right or wrong. Across the four games, Zero's perception on his past and current events develop greatly, to the point where in Zero 4 he sees that he has always fought for those he believes in and learned to trust them. He doesn't care about justice or being called a hero. He only cares about fighting for both the people he trusts and everlasting peace. As he put it, "If an enemy appears in front of me, I will destroy it!" Storytelling such as this allows Zero 4 to not only end on a climactic but satisfying note, and I am happy for that. So how is the gameplay this time around? Ooh boy it's something. At its core, Zero 4 is fundamentally exactly like its predecessors. Where it isn't is where this game suffers. The level design and difficulty are honestly unnerving a lot of the time, probably even worse than Zero 2 in my opinion. The bosses are mostly bothersome for me as well, and of the eight central ones I only like two of them. I just don't have much to say about the gameplay this time around since outside of it everything's largely the same. On another note, Zero 4's weapon library is very nerfed this time around. I'm sure it still has its merits, but I don't got too much on it. For starters, the new Zero Knuckle is honestly a huge step down from the weapons in the first three games. The recoil rod was good, the chain rod was good, even the triple rod from Zero 1 felt more useful. In Zero 4, the Zero Knuckle lets you selectively take enemy weapons and use them against other enemies. It sounds cool in concept, but I did not even bother utilizing it at all during my run except for when I needed to grab overhang poles to traverse in the levels, to ascend specific passages, and to pull the switches in the Arcadian Sub level. I honestly was more comfortable sticking with the Z-Saber and buster for the game, like I have for the entire series. To me, this is easily the worst introduced weapon in the series, even though it isn't exactly a weapon in of itself. Then there's the Cyber Elf system. I appreciate it being more narrowed down but Zero 3 had it down right. Here, you are given one Cyber Elf that you have to grind energy crystals for to evolve and give you new abilities, like greater health, greater agility, and the elemental abilities. And you can't manage Cyber Elves in real time anymore like you could in Zero 3 meaning you can only feed them energy crystals outside of the stages. Why? It's rough enough that the Cyber Elf system was reduced as much as it was, but why not still give us the luxury of managing them in real time? It feels like a lot that made Zero 3 work was nearly disregarded in Zero 4, and that honestly hurts the game more times than not. Lastly there's the recipe system. What the heck happened here? It's supossed to let you combine parts you acquire to get certain abilities like a double jump, better stats, and E-tanks. But it just doesn't sit right with me. Why is it so randomized? Why is it so hard to understand? Why doesn't anything about it work smoothly? Like the Zero Knuckle, I tried to figure this out for a little bit but just gave up. I didn't even want to bother with something so hard to get the hang of. All of these things just come across as a step down, like a lot about Zero 4. I know I have been bashing Zero 4 a lot in this review, but I don't want to say that it is a terrible game. Because in retrospect it is not that. I just feel that when you perfect so much about the series in its predecessor only to remove all of those qualities, it just becomes a bother. But as far as those things are concerned, Zero 4 still has a lot of good things going for it as aforementioned. Transitioning now into the endgame, the final stage is pretty solid. The music playing in the background adds a tense, climactic feel appropriate for the scale of the last level not just in the game but in the series. You know, let's talk about the music. To be honest, I wasn't too big on it at first—and I largely still am not—but there are definitely some tracks that I have grown fond of. My favorites include: ●Area Zero Camp Theme ●Cyber-Elf Menu Theme ●Opening Stage 2 Theme ●Deep Sea Stage ●Boss Encounter Theme ●Hibernation Chamber ●Mid-Boss Theme ●Ragnarok Control Theme ●Craft's Theme ●Vs. Craft ●Rust and Dust ●Teleporter Circuit ●Final Stage Theme ●On the Edge ●Boss Theme ●Falling Down (Vs. Dr. Weil - Phase 2) ●Epilogue Theme ●Credits Theme The final fight with Dr. Weil is honestly pretty good. It's not my favorite final battle in the series but far from the worst. But damn the music, Falling Down, is an absolute banger! A great send-off for the final battle in the series! With a lot of blood, sweat and tears—and I mean a lot—it all ends here. Zero defeats Dr. Weil once and for all, Ragnarok is destroyed, and all the humans and reploids have been saved. Chaos has been overted and peace has been ensured, but all at the cost of losing Zero. Ciel sheds tears atop a hill where shooting stars continue to fly in the night sky behind. The music gives off a triumphant but emotional feel as Ciel expresses her sentiments and tells Zero to watch over and believe in everyone as she ensures peace is sustained, concluding Zero 4 and Mega Man Zero in its entirety. Wow, that was quite the way to go out. On the whole, I quite enjoyed the Zero series. It had a great plot, great storytelling, great characters and development, good music, solid presentation, and themes that were applied extremely effectively. Zero 1 through 3 were all very solid games that I found a lot to like about. Unfortunately, Zero 4 is a game difficult for me to judge. To be blunt, I believe that it is the bottom of the barrel for the Zero series not too far behind Zero 2, but the latter had a lot more good things going for it outside of the story and presentation. But in the end, Zero 4 still steps up as a really good Mega Man game period. And as the conclusion for the Zero series, it was truly one hell of a—if not the best—way to go out. 🌟 3.5 / 5 Stars